Weekly Roundup – 9th December 2016

Expanding our Reach

I am receiving increased interest from our trading partners on a range of issues which is further consolidating our brand and generating new global relationships.

The FBIA were recently approached by the Italian Trade Agency, Trade Promotion Section of the Italian Embassy regarding a visit to Australia by Provex. Provex are an Association of SMEs operating in the Varese Province who represent Italian food and beverage companies wanting to export.

I met with Ms Lucia Florenzano last week to discuss the Australian market and learn more about the Italian companies, and their products, who were interested in exporting or investing in our market. It was a fruitful and engaging discussion.

Import Industry Advice Notices are available from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources website at: www.agriculture.gov.au/iian.

Wrap-up and videos from Canberra Industry Information and Education Session

Over 180 people attended the most recent two-day Industry Information and Education session in Canberra on 8–9 November 2016.

On the first day participants heard from a range of experts—exploring themes around regulatory science and innovation in the global context—day two focused on updates from across the APVMA.

Video recordings of a range of the presentations from both days are available on the APVMA’s YouTube channel.

Dates for future sessions will be published in early 2017.

Streamlining the payment process

The APVMA has commenced introducing an option to pay the full fee at the time an application is submitted.

At the moment this is only available for some application types and will be progressively implemented for all application types over the next few months.

A notice on the Online Services Portal will identify which items have this option available—if an item is not listed, it isn’t available yet.

If you have any questions please contact the APVMA enquiries team on +61 2 6210 4701 or by email.

Reminder—efficacy contestability pilot

The APVMA is running a pilot to determine the feasibility of moving the function of conducting or commissioning a data assessment from the APVMA to the private sector.

The pilot aims to identify and rectify any potential issues and demonstrate whether the proposed process can increase the efficiency of application processing. If you are interested in participating in the pilot, please contact the Efficacy Assessment Coordinator.

FSANZ’s Media Release

Labelling

Research from the George Institute for Global Health has found that half of the 4466 foods analysed exceeded the standard energy serve of 600kj found in the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The study also found varying serving sizes for the same product, with fizzy drinks and chocolate among the worst offenders. Find out more here.

The amount of information on food labels can be overwhelming for some consumers, so the NSW Food Authority has created an information portal to help. Read more.

While the Federal Government has agreed to investigate extending country of origin labelling to include seafood sold at restaurants, South Australia is pushing for ‘state of origin’ labelling—to better support the local seafood industry. Read more.

A newly created ‘bad taste food award’ for outlandish marketing claims has been launched in New Zealand receiving over 200 submissions. The organisers of the award said they don’t know whether to be happy or sad…Find out more here.

Food safety

The Food Safety Information Council has urged people not to make their own aioli or raw egg mayonnaise this festive season, due to increased possibility of exposure to salmonella. Read more about the risks here.

Meanwhile, 350 cases of salmonella in 10 countries have been linked to a Polish egg farm. The outbreak has triggered members of the European Parliament to call for stricter food safety checks than those currently provided by EU regulations. Find out more here.

Dubbed ‘the purple blowtorch’, a new food safety treatment has been shown to kill 99.9 per cent of norovirus on blue berries without damaging the delicate fruit. Check it out here.

Dairy technicians in Australia currently don’t have to meet any national or international ISO accreditation standards, leading to the questions about milk safety. Read more.

A nine-page petition filed in the US is pushing for the national Department of Agriculture’s Food and Safety Inspection Service to require “colorectal cancer warning labels” on certain meat and poultry products. Read more.

Food regulation

A New York City’s appeals court has heard arguments on a first-of-its-kind regulation mandating that chain restaurants warn consumers of sodium-rich menu items by putting a salt-shaker icon on those that exceed the RDI limit. Read the salty story here.

Meat colour will be removed as a Meat Standards Australia eligibility requirement, after research has confirmed there is no evidence that meat colour has an impact on eating quality. Read more.

Australia’s dairy industry lobby groups are hopeful legislation introduced into Federal Parliament will redistribute “the balance of power” across the entire supply chain and potentially lead to the removal of dollar-per-litre milk. Read more.

Diet and nutrition

Nutritionists are now saying that vegan diets are completely fine for children, the elderly, and pregnant women to follow—as long as they’re well-balanced. Read more.

Nestlé has made a scientific discovery it says will drastically lower the amount of sugar in its chocolate—by up to 40 percent—while keeping the taste the same. Read the press release here.

Have you ever avoided cheese before bed to dodge nightmares, or put a spoon in an open champagne bottle to retain the fizz? Aussie chefs bust and prove a number of popular food myths. Read the article.

A new ‘nutrition care’ program for hospitals developed in the US has been found to reduce 30-day readmission rates by almost 30 percent and cut the average hospital stay for malnourished people by two days. Have a look at the program here.

This article looks at whether snacking is really good for you or if it’s just contributing calories your body doesn’t need.

GMO

New Zealand’s strict anti-GM rules are blocking the planting of a GM ryegrass seed that has a 40 percent production increase and a 30 percent lower water demand. Find out more here.

The European Commission is pushing for national governments to have the power to ban the use of genetically modified organisms as ingredients in human food and animal food, even if they have been approved. Read more.

Softer meat produced by a 3D printer? It might be the answer for aged care homes and restaurants. Read more.

Skippy and Noosa show how quarantine is done in Australia

It’s been a year since we opened our consolidated Post-Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility in Mickleham, near Melbourne airport, where 3629 dogs, 1596 cats and 334 horses have already made a temporary home.

Over that period, a massive 8112 kilograms of dog food was eaten by the hungry canines, with the felines chewing through 1230 kilograms of cat food while they underwent the mandatory 11-day minimum stay after entering Australia from overseas. Read more…

MARS is now in full sail across all Australian seaports

The Maritime Arrivals Reporting System (MARS) commenced on 26 September after the successful completion of a pilot in Mackay and Gladstone.

Stage 1 of the rollout was in the Pilbara Region. The final round of implementation commenced on 4 November and has now been rolled out across all Australian locations. Read more…

Regions bring fresh ideas to biosecurity talks

The Department hosted the annual National Biosecurity Forum in November, bringing together 80 representatives from across industry and government for a day of workshops that focused on improving the management of Australia’s biosecurity.

The forum built on a series of seven regional roundtables, which were run in conjunction with our National Biosecurity Committee colleagues. Read more…

Funding innovation to help farmers win the war on pests

Are you working on new and better ways to control weeds of pest animals, such as wild dogs?

Join our recreational and commercial vessel surveys

We’re running two national surveys to better understand biofouling on vessels in Australian marine waters.

Biofouling occurs when plants and animals attach and grow on a vessel’s submerged areas, such as the hull and propeller. Read more…

Protecting Australian bats from fatal fungus

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is working with other organisations to boost biosecurity measures to prevent the entry of an exotic disease rapidly spreading in bats across North America.

White Nose Syndrome (WNS) of bats was first identified in North America in 2006, and has since spread across the USA and Canada, causing the deaths of over 5 million cave-hibernating bats. Read more…

Border Finds – Ladybird, ladybird fly away from our home

A mail parcel containing thousands of exotic ladybeetles recently arrived at Melbourne airport, where it was spotted and contained by our vigilant biosecurity officers.

Inside were more than 3000 live Convergent ladybeetles (Hippodamia convergens) which boarded a flight from the USA to Australia. Read more…

Border Finds – A slimy surprise inside

Our biosecurity officers got a slimy surprise when they intercepted a package at the Melbourne Gateway Facility containing more than 100 exotic snails.

When examined, the snails were found to be two exotic species commonly sold in the overseas aquarium trade, the predatory Assassin Snail (Clea helena) and the Zebra Nerite Snail (Neritina natalensis). Read more…